


The Florist and The Tattoo Artist

by DawnLight20



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Flower Shop, Florist Tsukishima Kei, Flowers, Fluff, Language of Flowers, M/M, Pining, Tattoo Artist Kuroo Tetsurou
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-19
Updated: 2020-08-19
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:27:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25993648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DawnLight20/pseuds/DawnLight20
Summary: When Kei became a florist and opened his own flower shop, he thought he would spend his time with his flowers. It never occurred to him that his flowers could help him find love too.
Relationships: Akaashi Keiji/Bokuto Koutarou, Kuroo Tetsurou/Tsukishima Kei, Yachi Hitoka/Yamaguchi Tadashi
Comments: 2
Kudos: 90





	The Florist and The Tattoo Artist

Since he was young, Tsukishima Kei loved nature and everything about it. In his childhood, he was absolutely fascinated by dinosaurs. Such great creatures, in so many forms, both predator and prey, now gone.

As time progressed, so did Kei's fascination. It spread from dinosaurs to other things. There were so many fascinating things in nature, if one only knew where to look. As someone who was so cold and unapproachable and yet lonely as well, Kei had to find solace in things that were not people.

Yes, he had Yamaguchi and he was the bestest friend anyone could ever have, but still Kei felt like he lacked a peace, a peace he could find only in flowers. Since the awful disaster with his brother in middle school, Kei had become even more closed off, and people found him to be even more unapproachable. 

In that time, Kei's mother had told him to try gardening. Kei had been reluctant at first, what was the point of working so hard for something only for it to die? But Tsukishima Ritsu had said something that had stuck with Kei, "It's not just the end result, but also the journey that matters." Kei had tried gardening for the first time half a week later.

Suffice it to say, he liked it a lot. He found a calmness he didn't know he wanted and needed until that moment, covered in dirt and watching his first flower bloom and spread it's sweet scent. He wanted to work with flowers since then and that is what he did.

Kei loved flowers. He loved how it had so many different meanings, how combining them with one another could create a completely new meaning than the previous. The language of flowers was immense and versatile, and for Kei it was a way to express himself without having to do so.

So he opened a flower shop. The shop was in a good place, in a good neighbourhood and despite Kei's doubts about success, he had a good business. For the next two years, he worked as a florist, eventually hiring a quite and petite woman named Yachi Hitoka, for whom his best friend fell head over heels.

With Yachi there, Kei didn't have to deal with the customers alone, and Kei was free to care for his flowers. He usually stayed at the desk, wrapping bouquets and managing the register.

Unless someone decided that it wouldn't be harmful to harass a young woman in a fairly empty shop and then Kei would step in. His tall stature and cold expression was enough to scary away most of them and it only took a few cutting words to scare away the rest.

One day though, the empty shop opposite to his became occupied by a tattoo shop. The owners apparently had the help of others, because there were a lot of people going in and out and Kei couldn't guess who was the owner.

A few days later though the list became much shorter, for the only people that were consistent was the tall guy with the crazy hair and the short guy who he had seen kick another tall guy with silver hair. The third person was also there a lot but only in the evenings and not even everyday and the short person left with him, so he assumed that was his boyfriend.

Kei continued seeing the other person only in passing, and didn't even know his name. It was a few months after moving in that the tattoo shop owner came to the flower shop.

It was a little over an hour left before closing, and Yachi had been in the back room taking stock to see what they had to order. Kei was alone in the shop, looking over some flowers when the door jingled, and Kei turned around to welcome the customers.

The two men were both tall, though Kei was a bit taller. The one with the dyed spiky hair was unknown to him but he recognised the other as the owner of the tattoo shop. The owner apparently had tattoos on himself, as proved by the little bit of coloured skin peeking out of his folded shirt sleeves. His left ear was pierced and he had a little tear drop dangling from his piercing.

Shaking his head to clear it of the thoughts about the weirdly handsome stranger, he approached them and asked," How may I help you, gentlemen?".

The one with the spiky hair answered his question with one of his, asking in a rather loud voice,"Do you have proposal flowers?"

Kei raised an eyebrow at that but before he could ask him to elaborate, the other person put a hand on the other's shoulder and said," What he means to say is its their fifth anniversary and he wants to propose to his boyfriend. What would you suggest?"

Kei said then, "Well there's always red roses."

The two of them glanced at each other before spiky hair said, "No, I don't think Keiji would like that. He would probably enjoy something less.... cliché."

Kei nodded then and said," In that case, how about a mixture of forget-me-nots and red tulips? Maybe something else mixed in?" 

The one with the raven hair tilted his head and asked," What do they mean?"

Kei thought he looked like a cat that way before he remembered to answer," Forget-me-not means true love, same as red roses, while red tulips stands for undying love." Then addressing the third person, he said,"How long have you been together,.....", he trailed off, not knowing the name of the person he was talking to.

The raven seemed to have understood and made introductions," Oh, this is Bokuto, Bokuto Koutarou. And I am Kuroo Tetsurou."

Kei shook the hand he was offered, before repeating the question. Bokuto answered, "Keiji and I have known each other for almost 8 years but we have only been together for 5 of those."

Kei nodded thoughtfully, before saying, "Then perhaps some honeysuckles to express your devoted affection for him?"

Bokuto nodded a minute later and agreed to take them. As he began to make the bouquet, Kuroo, who had been looking around came up to the counter. He leaned on it and said,"Nice place you have here."

Kei glanced at him for a second before returning his eyes to the knot he was tying and thanked him. Then he handed the bouquet over, and after paying, the two of them were gone. Yachi came out just as they were leaving and handed him the list of stock they had before asking who they were.

Kei answered,"Our neighbour, the tattoo artist and his friend, to buy flowers for his friend's boyfriend." Yachi made an 'o' before going her way.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Two days after that, in the afternoon, when the shop was again empty and Kei was relaxing behind the counter, a dark haired man entered the shop. Unlike the tattoo artist though, his hair was cut short and he was shorter in height, though not by much. He also had pretty green eyes.

He was immediately approached by Yachi but what ever he said had her pointing him out, and seeing so Kei had to put his phone down. He came around the counter to meet the guy half way, waving off Yachi from where she was standing nervously. 

The other guy spoke then," Are you Tsukishima?"

Kei narrowed him eyes a bit before nodding and asking,"Yes. What can I help you with?"

The other person introduced himself then,"My name is Akaashi Keiji, my fiance, Bokuto, was here a few days ago."

Kei remembered him, hard to forget. He said,"The one who came looking for proposal flowers? Yes, I remember. Congratulations on your engagement, then."

Akaashi said,"Thank you. I came here to thank you about your help though."

Kei shrugged and said,"You are welcome, though I was just doing my job."

Akaashi said then,"Even so, if you hadn't helped them, they probably would have gone home with black roses."

Kei raised his eyebrows at that and seeing his disbelieving expression, Akaashi laughed and said,"For them it's possible. Anything is possible."

Kei just said an unreadable alright and then helped Keiji with a bouquet.

After that, for some reason, for the next two months, Kei kept bumping into the tattoo artist, once literally. Sometimes on the streets, sometimes when he went out with his friends and even once in the grocery store. As a result, they started talking and suddenly, Kei had exchanged numbers with the other man and talking to him like they had known each other for years.

Yamaguchi had been very shocked one day when he had come to pick Yachi up and had found Kuroo and Kei at the counter laughing about something. While he had heard from Yachi that Kei had become friends with Kuroo, he hadn't believed that they were this close.

When he had asked Kei about it later that night, something in Kei's eyes had made him that it wasn't just friendship Kei felt, but something more. Yamaguchi hoped that Kuroo felt the same, for heartbreak wasn't something that was easy to come back from, and Yamaguchi had no desire to see kei go through it.

Kei for his part, felt like he could be himself around Kuroo, something he had only felt around a few people that weren't his family. He could talk about nature for hours and hours and Kuroo would listen intently, not brush him off but rather listen like everything he said was important.

Anytime Kei might have trailed off, Kuroo would nudge him and he would know that Kuroo genuinely wanted to listen to him talk. In return, Kuroo told him about himself, how he had found tattoos interesting, and how bokuto had once dared him to get a piercing, and he had pierced his ear because of it. But he found he liked it and so kept it. Just like this, they kept exchanging information about eachother and continued to get close.

Kei had not realized he was in love with kuroo until Yamaguchi had pointed it out. The shop had been closed for the day and the three of them had gone out to eat together. Kei had been talking about something that kuroo had told him, when he had seen Yachi and Yamaguchi exchange glances.

He had stopped his story to ask them,"What?". Both of them had tried to pretend nothing was wrong but the more Kei pushed, the more nervous they looked, until Yamaguchi had blurted out, "When did you fall in love with kuroo?".

Kei had frozen, thinking he had misheard but the other's expression told him he hadn't. "What?", he had croaked out and watched as the other two realized he truly didn't know he was in love with Kuroo.

He had tried to deny it for a week, so vehemently that even Yachi, ever so polite Yachi, had thrown him a look that said 'seriously, you are still denying it?', when Kei had laughed at something Kuroo had said. After that he pretty much had to admit it.

Then he decided that Kuroo couldn't possibly like him back and so decided he would not confess. Yamaguchi and Yachi had tried to convince him otherwise but in the end, had admitted defeat.

Everything came to an end one day. That evening, when Kuroo had entered the shop, he had looked nervous but determined and when he had gone up to kei, he had immediately said,"I need a bouquet for a first date."

Kei had in return said,"Is this someone new to you? If so, then I advise against flowers."

Kuroo had shook his head and said,"I have known them for a while now and I like to think he's a good friend of mine."

Kei's mind had gone to Kenma, someone he had heard a lot about, but had yet to meet. But he shook himself, and started to prepare a bouquet with yellow roses and lilac, after Kuroo had agreed to them.

His carefully constructed mask had slipped while he was tying the bouquet with a ribbon and the end had gotten slightly wrinkled but when he had been about to change it, Kuroo had stopped him and said it was fine. Kei had wished him good luck and Kuroo had thanked him before leaving.

Yachi had come up to him then, to comfort him perhaps but Kei had simply shook his shoulder to remove her hand and had said a I told you so, before going back to his work. Yamaguchi had picked up on his bad mood as soon as he had come in, and Kei could hear Yachi telling him what happened.

Yamaguchi had tried to comfort him as well, but again Kei wasn't really in the mood. In the end, Yamaguchi and Yachi had left before him, and as Kei locked the turned off the lights and locked the front door, he sighed and wanted nothing but to go home and curl up in his bed.

Of course, his plans were foiled. When he turned around it was to see Kuroo standing behind him, still with the bouquet in his hands. Kei had jumped back, a hand on his chest in fear, and immediately started to worry that he had gotten rejected. Then he decided to voice his worries, seeing as simply staring at him wouldn't give him an answer.

Kuroo had shook his head, and had opened his mouth to say something, but had to close it and try to clear his throat. He was clearly nervous, though Kei, for the life of him couldn't figure out why.

Then Kuroo had extended the bouquet towards him and simply said,"These are for you."

Kei had stared for a while before stuttering out a what and that had made Kuroo explain the situation they were in.

Kuroo started with,"I like you, a lot. I have for a while now. But I didn't know how to tell you that. And I remembered you saying how flowers could speak for us, when we didn't want to do so. So I decided to use flowers. So, Tsukishima Kei, will you go out with me? "

Kei was stumped. Here was the man he was in love with, standing in front of him with a bouquet of flowers, asking him to go out with him. Kei couldn't help it. He jumped forward, Kuroo barely managing to catch and steady them, as Kei wrapped his arms around him and buried his face in his neck.

Kuroo hugged him back, before asking,"Is this a yes?"

Kei had laughed, had pulled back to face him and had breathed out a yes and Kuroo had kissed him. He pulled back after a bit, both of them smiling, and Kuroo gave the bouquet to Kei, who took it and caressed the flowers with a soft smile.

Then Kuroo asked him,"Come with me?". And he had been rewarded with that same soft smile before Kei had slipped his hand into his and asked where they would be going.

Kuroo took them to one of their favourite restaurants, someplace they had gone before, but this time there was something different about it, something so soft and loving. They had talked like they always did, but this time they could hold each other's hand when they felt like it, and feed each other the strawberry shortcake they had decided to get.

Afterwards, Kuroo had walked Kei home, and kissed him goodnight, before promising to see him tomorrow. Kei had entered his flat in a daze, finding a vase and putting the flowers in it, finding it hard to believe that Kuroo actually liked him back.

Yamaguchi had called then for some reason that wasn't stated and something in his voice had probably made Yamaguchi worried but Kei had simply laughed and told him of what had happened. Both Yamaguchi and Yachi had laughed and squealed and congratulated him and for once, Kei had accepted it without fuss. That night, when Kei went to sleep, it was with a smile on his face, thinking about his now boyfriend.

And when Kuroo would visit him in the shop the next afternoon, Kei would greet him with a kiss and that same soft smile.

**Author's Note:**

> The meaning of the flowers that I used are  
> Honeysuckle - devoted affection  
> Forget-me-not - True love  
> Red tulip - undying love  
> Yellow roses - friendship, joy, caring  
> Lilac - first emotions of love
> 
> These are the meanings that I found were for these flowers, but if there are mistakes then I apologise.
> 
> This fic is also very short and I really can't find more content relevant to it. So, I apologise for that too.
> 
> I hope everyone enjoyed this, and have a good day/night!!


End file.
